Emptiness of the Heart
by Vibranch
Summary: After abusing the Power of Waking, Sora finds himself wandering through a never ending void of white. As Sora searches for an exit from this place, the solitude and emptiness of the world threatens to tear his sanity apart. But will a newfound power change all that? And will that change be a gift or a curse? (Mostly Sora alone, eventual Yozora)[Ends where the secret ending begins]


Sora awoke in a strange place. It was a void of blinding white. It reminded him of waking up in Twilight Town for the first time. But instead of being greeted by the familiar voices of Donald and Goofy. He was alone.

"Hello…?" Sora's voice was low, but it carried through the air in front of him. Sora let loose a breath he was holding in, as no response came to him. Fear overcame Sora. Fear that he might be lost and alone, wherever this place was. "Oh well." Sora tried to shrug off his nerves. "What do Donald and Goofy always tell me? No sad faces, right? I'll just have to find my own way out now." Sora took off running into the colorless void, hoping to find something, anything.

* * *

Sora had long since exhausted himself from running. He could barely bring himself to walk. _How long have I been moving?_ Sora wondered. The place seemed to stretch on forever. But if that was the case, surely something must be here besides himself.

Sora tried calling out again. "Hello?! Hello is anyone out there?! Please if you can hear me, please say something!" Sora yelled until his throat was sore and his voice was raspy. The pain caused Sora rub his throat, "Boy what I wouldn't give for some water…" Exhausted, Sora fell over on the ground. Without meaning to Sora imagined shimmering clear water. Something cool and refreshing like the springs back home from the Islands.

Sora yelped as he was struck in the face by a torrent of liquid. Sitting up immediately, Sora searched for the source of what hit him. There wasn't anything around him. Not even any clouds in the sky that could have dumped it on him. No, it was still the blinding white expanse as it always was.

Sora felt around the floor he was sitting on. The liquid that had hit him earlier was still on the floor. Sora brought a wet hand to his lips. With a quick taste Sora recognized it. "W-water…" Sora rasped. Sora gulped with a slight bit of shame before he started clawing at the water, trying to scoop up and drink whatever he could. It wasn't much, but the little that he swallowed helped soothe his throat.

With his throat slightly refreshed, Sora attempted one last call into the void. Once again nothing greeted him. Sora groaned in frustration. "What am I supposed to do if I'm lost and all alone? And where did that water come from?"

Sora stood up. Trying to force a determined look on his face. Believing that if he looked determined, eventually he would feel determined. "I can't just sit around. I've got to keep moving until I find something."

Sora continued walking. The feeling of exhaustion constantly tempting him to fall over again. Sora tried thinking of his friends to distract himself from it. He wondered if they were okay. The last thing he could remember was saving Kairi and returning her to the Islands, before everything started to fade away for him. Were they worried about him? Sora hadn't even checked to make sure everyone else was okay before he left to find Kairi. Maybe some of the others had gotten hurt during the battle…

"Well the first thing I'm gonna do once I get back is make sure everyone's okay." Sora said aloud. Without anyone else around, Sora found himself talking to himself more often than he usual. "I should watch out," Sora joked, "They say talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity!"

Sora walked on for what he assumed must have been hours. He hoped that his short attention span only made it feel like hours. His thoughts floated to the people trapped in his heart. "I wonder if this was how they felt, being stuck in my heart. I really wanted to get to know them more…" Who exactly was Ventus? Xion was also a mystery to Sora. The only one Sora had really known was Roxas, and even then, they hadn't even had real conversation. "Well, not unless I count the talk we had while he was trying to kill me." Sora said, the exhaustion traveling into his tone of voice.

The void he walked through wasn't especially hot or cold. In fact, Sora hadn't even noticed the temperature until now. But thinking about Roxas made Sora long for one of those Sea-Salt ice creams he and Axel always had together. The one time Sora had one, it was delicious. Salty, and yet somehow, at the same time not. Sweet and yet somehow also not. It was as if the sweet parts tasted slightly salty and the salty parts were slightly sweet. Sora could picture the shape and the taste and the icy cool air that would come off it.

Something soft was crushed under Sora's foot as he walked along. "What the?" Sora said in surprise. He moved his foot to see sky blue coloring smeared across the white ground. Nearby his foot was a stick. A popsicle stick!

"Oh man," Sora chided himself. "How did I miss that!" He picked up the stick, hoping that at least some of it was still intact. "Nope, just a bunch of blue slush…" Devastated, Sora fell to the floor. The will to keep on moving faded from his body.

"I'd really like to have something to eat." Sora said, disappointment spreading through his body. "I know it wouldn't have satisfied much, but now that I think about it, I've been walking a long time and I haven't eaten a thing…" Sora tried to think about other things, but he kept coming back to the popsicle.

Eventually he opened his eyes again. The weight of the stick he was holding seemed to have increased while his eyes were closed, but Sora just assumed that must have been his imagination playing trick on him. But when he looked back, it was a whole popsicle again! Sora didn't waste time questioning it, he wolfed down the ice cream as fast as he could. It tasted just as good as he remembered it.

Once he was finished with it, he was suddenly struck by the impossibility of what had happened. "Where did that ice cream come from?" Sora wondered aloud. "Am I actually going crazy?" Sora looked over to where he'd stepped on the ice cream earlier. "No, that can't be. There still pieces of what I stepped in melting over here. So, I definitely stepped on it at first…" Sora rested his chin on his fist, trying to think of an answer to where the second ice cream had come from, and why was it on the stick from the original ice cream.

"Argh! I don't get it!" Sora yelled, digging his nails into his scalp. "Where did it come from!" Sora fell over on his back, trying to let go of his obsession with the magically appearing ice cream. With a whisper, Sora tried to calm himself. "Maybe I should try to get some sleep. Maybe I'm not thinking straight."

Sora closed his eyes and tried to drift off. But the world was too blinding white for his eyelids to block out. Sora tried covering his eyes with his arms, but he couldn't get comfortable enough to fall asleep in this position. "Some lazy bum, I am…" Sora said dejectedly. How many times had Kairi called him that? Surely this endless plane of whiteness shouldn't be too difficult to sleep through. But unlike the sunny skies at the beach, the lighting here was too artificial, too clinical, and much much too all consumingly WHITE!

Sora rolled over hoping that would help. And while it did, if only a little, he still couldn't fall asleep. "Maybe thoughts of the night will help me." Sora whispered. He tried picturing the night skies back at the Islands. The sound of the waves lapping at the shore as the tide rolled in. And the millions of brilliantly twinkling stars in the sky. Each one a world to themselves. And not a one would ever go out, after all he, Donald, and Goofy made sure of that.

It seemed to be working, Sora could have sworn the light sneaking past his eyelids was getting darker.

When at last Sora opened his eyes again, he was shocked to see the sky above had become just like he'd pictured. The white void that normally greeted him was still surrounding him in all directions but immediately overhead. Instead it was a thoroughly dark sky with all the stars Sora had been imagining earlier.

"What in all the worlds is going on?!" Sora shouted. Sora didn't fail to note that this was the third time something had happened when he wasn't looking. Was that the cause? Do things change when you close your eyes in this… wherever he was. Sora looked around, hoping to see an actual source for what caused the change in scenery. But aside from the different sky, everything else was still the same piercing white.

Sora furiously scratched at his head, trying to think of what was going on. When suddenly, a common thread hit him. Every time something changed, it was always something Sora was thinking of. Or, more accurately, picturing in his mind.

"It's a nice idea, but can I prove it?' Sora asked himself. Rotating his head left and right continued to think. "Well, I guess only one way to find out." Sora was still pretty hungry. So he imagined the fruit cake Little Chef made for him. "He said it was a Tarte- something… Whatever the name isn't important, just the look, and the smell, and the taste, and of course the…"

Sora wasn't able to finish the thought before the cake he was imagining fell right on top of him. Sora shook pieces of cake off himself. "Okay next time, let's imagine it appearing on a table right in front of me." A part of him was annoyed at pelting himself with a cake. But he could hide the part of himself that was excited it actually worked.

Within moments Sora conjured up a large feast in front of himself with all his favorite foods adorning the table. And when he'd finished eating, Sora conjured a house and bedroom that looked just like his home back on the Islands. Not liking the view from the window, Sora imagined the view to look just as it did back home. The white void facing his window obeyed and shifted hues until it too appeared like that of a sandy beach at night.

Hopping into bed, Sora finally let out a contented breath. Maybe this wasn't his real home. But for one night's sleep, he'd feel at peace.

* * *

Sora had no idea how long he'd slept for. When he awoke, he assumed he must have woken up early. The rising sun still hadn't broken over the horizon. So Sora rolled back over and fell back to sleep. When he woke up he checked outside his window and saw the same thing. So he went back to sleep again. He did this again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again.

Finally, when Sora decided that he _must_ have slept for far far _far_ long enough, he got out of bed to investigate what was going on. Sora found himself unprepared as he stepped outside his door. He was blinded by the piercing white that awaited outside his door. Sora spent the next few minutes clutching his eyes, trying to adjust them to the brightness that was coming towards him.

"I don't get!" Sora yelled. "It was so dark a second ago, why is it so bright now!?" Sora turned round the corner of his house and found his answer. "Oh yeah, that's right…" Sora found the nighttime setting of the Islands on the other side of his house. Having woken up inside the familiar place, Sora had forgotten that he wasn't really on his Island. "I guess, I need to teach this place how time works in order for there to be a change between day and night."

He couldn't risk forgetting he wasn't really home again. So, Sora left this spot of the void behind. He hoped that as he continued to move, he would eventually find an exit to this place or maybe another person he could talk to.

* * *

Sora had lost track of how long he'd been moving for. He assumed days but feared weeks. The only thing he could use to keep track of time was an uncertain estimate of the amount of times he'd gone to sleep. Sora was desperate for someone to talk to. He needed human interaction. Not even the joy of having anything he wanted to eat excited him now. It all just tasted like he remembered it. Never anything new. He tried to experiment in other ways. He created the cake Little Chef made for him again and a pile of salt on top of it. But the two tastes were completely distinct from the other. It didn't taste like a salty Tarte- whatever. It tasted distinctively of cake, then distinctively of salt. The flavors were always completely separately from the last flavor.

Sora trudged on. Each step Sora took was more sluggish than the last. Eventually he even ran out of things to say to himself and he just marched for days silently.

When suddenly, Sora had an idea. He did have a way to talk to the others! He focused hard on the Gummi Phone that had been given to him. All the operations and folders and things it could do. When Sora opened his eyes the Gummi Phone was within his hand. "Jackpot!" Sora shouted. His own voice sounding unfamiliar to his ears. He flipped through the phone and called Kairi. "Oh man, she is not going to believe this!"

Sora waited with bated breath as he heard his phone ring. He waited, and waited, and waited. Then finally he heard a voice. An error message. "We're sorry. The call you are trying to make could not be completed as dialed. Please leave a message and it will be sent once you are within range."

"N-no… No! No, no, no, no!" Sora pleaded to the unlistening voice. He hung up and dialed it again. The same automated message played again. A flash of desperation ripped through Sora's mind. "Kairi?! Kairi?! Are you there?! Please help me! I'm still alive! I'm lost in this void! Are you out there?!"

Sora fell to his knees as he pressed the end call button. The Gummi Phone never failed before. Even in the Realm of Sleep, Chip and Dale managed to call him. Where was he?! Did it not work because it was a creation from his mind? Or can he only affect things in this world. Regardless of why it wasn't working, Sora didn't feel like walking anymore. So, he willed a building, a bed, and a night sky into existence and laid down until he fell asleep.

* * *

"Hey, Riku. Just thought I'd call. I'm about to have something to eat. Nothing fancy, just some fish, mushrooms, and coconuts. You remember, right? Same thing we planned to eat back when we were going to take the raft out to find new worlds… Well anyway, call me back if you ever get this message."

Sora ended the call. Still no signal apparently… All he could do for the past couple of days was try to send out calls. The automated system promised that if they ever called got into range they'd get the messages. But Sora worried that day might never come.

Sora sat alone at the table. Craving to have someone, anyone, to share some interaction with. The idea to try and create another person had come to Sora a few days earlier. But he'd tried to push the idea away from his mind. He told himself it wouldn't be right to create a new person for as selfish a reason as needing someone to talk too. But the need was getting to powerful. Sora unconsciously thought of Kairi and Riku. By the time Sora opened his eyes and realized what he was doing, it was too late.

At the table sat two unmoving mannequins of his friends. "Guys, is it really you?" Sora ran over to them. But stopped as he approached them. He created two people who looked like them. But they had no soul. No heart. They just sat at the table not even blinking. "Guys…? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do this…"

* * *

Sora didn't have the heart to erase the two likenesses of his friends. But he couldn't stand looking at them either, and knowing they were sitting outside his door while he slept was too much for him as well. They weren't really human, just mounds of flesh that looked like his friends. And worst of all, he was responsible for creating them. So, he left them behind and moved on further until they were out of sight. Sora had spent the next few days trying to forget what he had done. Despite that, their blank stares towards the empty plates on the table were still burned in his mind.

"I've got to do something to take things off my mind." Sora announced one day. He was sick of recreating places that he'd visited before. Since it was easiest to create things from his memory, that's what he usually did when he needed a place to sleep. "Maybe I should create someplace brand new… Hmm, I promised Neku and the others that I'd visit them in Shibuya, so maybe I should try to create a place like that." Sora tried to imagine what the place would be like. Neku and the others made it sound like some kind of city. So maybe something like San Fransokyo. But a little less… Tech-y?"

* * *

Sora had spent what he assumed were weeks building high rises and skyscrapers. When Sora had visited San Fransokyo it was a mostly cloudless couple of days. So for Shibuya, he thought he'd make it overcast with a little rain thrown in. But despite the effort it took to create a brand new city, feelings of loneliness still clouded his mind.

One day Sora finally relented. He wouldn't create someone he knew. After all, how could he hope to capture all of their intricacies and personality and put it into one thought. Besides, if anyone ever did finally come for him, he didn't want them to think he tried to replace them with a shoddy fake. So he borrowed a familiar face. A face that didn't belong to a real person.

"Yozora…" Sora whispered, trying to imagine the figure he saw on the Verum Rex boxes he saw back at the Toy Box world. Sora watched as the person began to form from nothingness in front of him.

"Who- who am I?" Yozora said in haze of newfound consciousness.

"You are Yozora," Sora said, giddy to have someone to talk to after who knows how long he was in here.

"I'm Yozora…? Who are you?" Yozora spoke slowly, taking in his surroundings.

"My name's Sora. I created this whole city. But most importantly I created you, so I'd have someone to talk to."

"Someone… to talk to? What kind of person is Yozora?"

"I don't know. I guess you'll have to decide for yourself." Sora looked at Yozora. He didn't seem entirely satisfied with Sora's answer. "I can help you decide on what kind of person you want to be. Would you like that?"

Yozora nodded. "That would be helpful. There's a lot running through my head right now."

Sora noticed Yozora was taking everything quite well. Sora was certain if he was suddenly morphed into existence, he'd be a bit more hysterical. Sora wished Roxas was here. He might have been able to offer some insight on what suddenly being born was like. "Well, you look kinda like my friend Riku, so maybe we'll use him as a base."

"Okay, what's he like?"

"Well, he's kinda soft spoken, but also incredibly strong." Sora flexed as he spoke, demonstrating his point.

Yozora hummed to himself as he considered the idea of learning more about Riku. "Somewhere inside me, I have memories of a Riku…"

"That makes sense. Since you both look a little similar, I guess I put a little of my memories of Riku into you."

"Tell me about him, I only have bits and pieces."

* * *

Sora continued to create more and more of his imagined Shibuya. His time with Yozora had taken a lot of the stress off Sora.

Sora climbed to the top of one of the buildings in the city. There Yozora sat just as Sora had expected.

"How's your brooding going?" Sora asked with a chuckle.

"You're sure this is what Riku does?" Yozora looked over to Sora, still sitting with one leg dangling over the ledge of the building. "Why doesn't he just talk about what he's feeling?"

"I don't know." Sora shrugged. "I've never understood it. My guess is, he has a lot that he wants to say, but doesn't really know how to say it." Sora looked at Yozora. Still obediently doing as Sora instructed. Sitting and brooding while Sora walked through the city, building more and more. Making the buildings of the city grow taller and adding new ones making the city wider. "But listen, Yozora, you don't have to be a copy of Riku if you don't want to be. I've really been using him as more of a template for you to follow only if you want to. If there's anything you want to say, feel free to say it." Sora smiled, hoping it would encourage Yozora to open to speak his mind.

"Well… I guess I have one question." Yozora said darkly. Sora's hairs stood on their ends as he anticipated the question. "Where do you think you are?"

Sora scrunched his face at the question. "Well, this is supposed to be Shibuya. I'll admit I don't actually know what the city looks like, but I think I did my best."

"No." Yozora said flatly. "I didn't ask you what this place is supposed to be. I'm asking you where you think you are right now." Yozora pointed far into the distance. Sora followed where his finger lead. Sora's blood ran cold as he saw the far away traces of the white void he'd thought he'd left behind. "If you were still wandering in the void. Where would you say you were?"

"Yozora, why are you asking me that?" Sora asked, his voice shaking.

"Because I'm not Yozora." His voice was monotone. "I've been talking to Riku and Kairi. The two you created and left behind. You didn't give them the ability to speak, to breath, or even to think. But they still found a way to carve an identity out for themselves."

"What are you talking about, Yozora. Those were husks. No, not even husks!" Sora babbled. He knew Yozora was hinting at something about this world. Sora could feel it. But Yozora wasn't making it clear enough for Sora to understand.

"Maybe at first. But abandonment for so long in the plains of nothingness gave rise to a single emotion." Yozora's emotionless voice stopped before he locked eyes directly with Sora. "Anger. And anger transformed into hatred. And when they find you, it'll turn into rage."

"I-I didn't mean to…" Sora tried to explain but Yozora cut him off.

"Explanations are past due for Riku and Kairi. They're in the city and they're looking for you, Sora."

Sora legs could no longer support his own weight and he fell to the ground. "Pl-Pl-Please, Yozora, help me." Sora struggled to pick himself up as he pleaded.

Yozora looked at him emotionlessly. "Let me ask you again, where do you think you are?" Yozora waited for Sora to respond. When it became clear that no response was coming Yozora continued to speak again. "I am a being made from within your heart, so I suppose I was born with this knowledge. So let me make it clear to you. You are trapped inside your own heart. You have absolute power over everything inside of here because you've abused the power of waking to the point that your heart traveled inside itself. The existence you've been going through is what people experience when their own heart tries to devour itself. And if the Riku and Kairi you've made find you… They'll make sure that what I've said isn't a metaphor."

Sora ran from Yozora. Jumping across rooftops, Sora didn't dare take the stairs. Fearing he might find himself trapped in a small space with the Riku and Kairi that were out there. Out to find him.

Sora leapt on to the roof of the tallest building. His heartbeat hammered iniside his chest. Slowly, Sora walked towards the edge of the building and looked down at the ground. The height was great enough that the landing would probably kill him. Sora tried to consider what he should do if he ran into them. He could erase them from existence if he tried to. Once he found them.

_Or they found him._

And it would only take one thought for them to fall apart like dust. But Sora wasn't sure he could do it. They might be after him, but they were still Riku and Kairi. He couldn't do that to them no matter what. Quickly, Sora pulled out the Gummi Phone he'd created and tried calling Kairi again.

Still no signal.

"Kairi? Please get this quick! I don't know what to do. They're coming… They look like you and Riku, but they're not. I didn't mean to create them it was just kind of an accident. Anyway, please get here soon. Either you or Riku or anyone! I don't care who, I just need help!" Sora hung up as another voice called out to him.

"Oh we'll get here soon, Sora."

"Yeah, sooner than you'd think."

Sora swallowed as he turned around. The Riku and Kairi he'd created were standing in front of him now. Slowly they walked towards him. Each step closer to Sora was another step Sora took backwards.

"I told you, if we go to the highest building Sora would eventually show up on it." The Kairi said.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." The Riku retorted.

Sora continued backing away from them. Too afraid to say anything. Eventually his foot found open air. Losing balance, Sora fell off the tall building. Towards the cement ground below.

Slowly, the world around him faded back into view. Sora picked himself up from the ground. He groaned as the dull pain spread over his body. "Of course. This is my heart, so I guess falling from great heights won't kill me." The memory of the Riku and Kairi waiting for him lingered in Sora's mind. He looked around the city trying to see if they were anywhere nearby. He didn't see them, so hopefully he wasn't unconscious for very long and they were still climbing down the stairs to reach him. Sora moved quickly through the city hoping they'd lose track of him if he didn't stay in one place.

* * *

Riku awoke in a strange unfamiliar city. It had only been a couple of days since they'd found Sora's heart floating in a void between Realms. According to Yen Sid, Sora was trapped within his own heart. Neither asleep nor awake. The original plan was to try and find ways to coax Sora out of the state he was in. But that was quickly scrapped as he and Kairi began getting voicemails from Sora as they held his heart. The first couple they heard from him were concerning enough. But as they listened to more, the more disturbing they became. Especially the last one Sora had sent.

"_They're coming"_ and _"They look like you and Riku"_. Riku dove into Sora's heart as soon as he heard the last message. But now that he was inside Sora's heart he was shocked at what he saw. A large city was not what he was expecting. Last time he traveled into Sora's heart, it resembled the Islands they had grown up on. And the messages Sora sent talked about a white void.

But Riku didn't have time to question the appearance inside Sora's heart. Last time Sora had been dreaming. This time Sora was awake and prisoner within himself. Riku had to accept that things would be different this time. As Riku walked through the city, he was unaware another presence watched him from above.

Yozora could see the speck of a Riku wandering the streets below the building he 'brooded' on. He watched as the Riku walked. Something wasn't right. He wasn't the Riku Sora had mistakenly created. Could he have come from outside? Yozora wondered. Things were going to get interesting.

* * *

Author's Note: I read a writing prompt that was literally the word "Vacuum" and this is what I came up with. I typed this out in one day and spent another editing it. So, there wasn't whole lot of planning involved, but as I kept going, I found myself liking it as I went along. Hopefully you liked it as well. I also hope you will leave a review and let me know what you thought of this.


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